Cellulose powder from olive industry solid waste

Abstract

In the present work, a method for extracting cellulose from olive industry solid waste has been developed. The method involves subjecting solid olive waste to kraft pulping, followed by multistep bleaching processes. The totally free chlorine chemical bleaching sequence APEP was the most effective and gave an average cellulose yield of about 35%. The extracted cellulose was extensively characterized using FTIR, EMS, HPLC, and viscometry. Our key finding in this study is that the extracted cellulose was found to have physio-chemical properties that are similar to those of conventional microcrystalline cellulose (MCC). This is important, as our results show how lignocellulosic agricultural wastes can be utilized to produce high value cellulose powder.